Jesse Rose Builds Successful Business Connecting People To Cape Seafood

Last July, Captain Jesse Rose stopped at PJs Family Restaurant on Route 6 in Wellfleet, where he worked as a teenager.

“He gave us some minced clams for our chowder,” said owner Brian Reeves, who has known Rose for decades. “We were having such a hard time finding good product, we tasted it and were like, ‘Woah, that’s legit!’

“We dumped everything else,” Reeves said with a laugh. “His clams are way more tender and definitely sweeter.”

Rose has been fishing most of his life. His foray into processing sea clams is a recent business move that fits into his work connecting people to Cape seafood.

“These are sustainable Cape Cod clams caught on the backside of the Cape and taste wonderful,” said Rose, adding clams harvested that morning can be in a chowder bowl by evening.

A fourth generation Wellfleetian who moved to Chatham when he was 20, Rose stood in his workspace in Commerce Park in Chatham on a recent sunny, humid day.

“What happens in here on a daily basis? A lot,” Rose said.

Scallops, sea clams, mussels, oysters and some finfish come in and out of the processing facility, which he bought in 2023, just about 20 years after he bought his first boat, which became the Midnight Our.

With employees at the plant, truck drivers, a direct sales contingent, and a captain and crew on each of three boats, he has 25 people on the payroll.

“Three years ago, I had two people,” he said.

He had Midnight Our then, named for his wife Abby’s family. Although she works at her grandfather’s business, the Robert B. Our Company, she spends a lot of time making sure the fish business runs smoothly.

Rose’s dad and great grandfather were fishermen, and one of Rose’s early memories is being on a boat when he was 6. When he was older, he started fishing for notable Chatham characters Ricky Abreau, Lee Tomlin, Mike Russo and John Tuttle.

“We caught quite a bit of fish together,” said Tuttle. “We had a great time. He is just one of those guys who is a natural fisherman.”

After crewing for several years, he ended up running a scalloper for Chris Our, Abby’s uncle (that’s how they met). When he was 30, he bought his own boat.

Midnight Our was a clam boat and scalloper. The clam permit came with scallops but stayed unused for about 18 years.

“We have always scalloped year-round,” Rose said. As scallop quota dropped, Rose opted to diversify.

“He is always thinking ahead,” said Tuttle. “He and his wife have a good head for business.”

Rose bought the Nemesis in 2020, which like Midnight Our can go scalloping or clamming.

“I’m a fisherman,” he said. “I’ll fish for what’s available, as long as there is lots of it.”

Midnight Our’s home port is Wychmere in Harwich, the Nemesis lands in Hyannis and Provincetown, depending on their choice of fishing grounds.

The captain of the Nemesis, Michael Van Hoose, 26, was with Rose on one of the hottest days of the summer. They spent about a day and half re-rigging the Nemesis so she could spend the next few weeks scalloping on Georges Bank, about 240 miles away.

They can have an audience in Provincetown when the crane at the pier picks up big bundles of clams from the photogenic Nemesis. The attention is OK with Van Hoose, who wants people to understand where their seafood is coming from.

Rose made upgrades to the processing plant, and he made sure people knew about local availability. He has made a guest appearance at Nauset High School to highlight local sea clams with culinary students and Cape Cod Tech regularly buys his clams for its culinary program.

With all the seafood coming in and out of the building, Rose finds himself on shore full-time these days. He delivers to a few restaurant clients, who he knows personally.

A good portion of the processed clams also travel with his scallops to various farmers markets up and down the Cape and beyond.

“I pulled into Barnstable the other day and there were 60 people waiting for me,” Rose said. “People put chopped clams over pasta. It’s delicious.”

With one tractor trailer and three box trucks, a lot of product is moving. About a quarter are alive and will go to the Boston area or New York. Rose also sends some clams to the famous Fulton Market in New York, but more goes to Red’s Best, which has facilities at the Chatham and Boston fish piers and in New Bedford. He will also make donations.

Almost all of the clam is used, some becoming clam strips; all are delicious, said Rose. The guts he sells as bait for conch and sea bass fishermen. Shells go to Abby’s family’s company for driveways.

Rose likes the idea of processing what he catches on Cape and selling it on Cape.

“This is old school,” he said of his operation.

Doreen Leggett is the community journalist for the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen's Alliance. She can be contacted at doreen@capecodfishermen.org.